Okinawa Shogaku High School obtains IB accreditation

The Okinawa Shogaku High School, a local private school consisting of both junior and senior high schools, has been officially accredited as an International Baccalaureate (IB) accredited school in February.

The Shogaku High School is the first baccalaureate accredited high school on Okinawa. The International Baccalaureate is a non-profit educational foundation that provides four highly respected international education programs; Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), Diploma Programme (DP) and Career-related Programme (CP), covering children from age of 3 through 19 years.

Okinawa Shogaku High School provides the Diploma Programme (DP) out of the four, which is an equivalent to the Japanese high school diploma. The school will start the program at their International Department of Humanities & Science Course from the school year beginning in April. The second and third grade students of the high school opting for the program will study for two years. DP consists of the subjects of foreign language, math and science. They will learn about not only the knowledge but also logical thinking and discussion skills, which are critical abilities of the DP program.

Most of the subjects will be taught in English. However, IB permits IB accredited schools to teach some subjects, like literature and history, in the native language. Students will obtain the IB License after they finish the prescribed curriculum. The IB License is accepted as a qualification for enrollment in many of the world’s top universities like Harvard, and in Japan, Osaka and Tsukuba Universities, as a part of their entrance tests. Okinawa Shogaku High School officials say “We want to foster children to become active in the world.”